America's Most Wanted Recipes by Ron Douglas

The Great American Taste Test

"Discover the recipes from America's most popular family restaurants and cook them at home for a fraction of the price!"

"Wouldn't it be nice if you could treat yourself to dishes from your favorite restaurants anytime? Now you can -- at home! In America's Most Wanted Recipes, Ron Douglas reveals copycat versions of carefully guarded secret restaurant recipes and shows family chefs how to prepare them at home, saving time and money. With these easy and mouth-watering recipes, families can enjoy a night out in their very own kitchens."

It's no secret I love to cook, so when the opportunity presented itself to be part of The Great American Taste Test, I jumped on it. The rules were as follows:

• Choose a recipe from the book
• Make the dish
• Purchase the "real" restaurant dish in order to conduct the taste test
• Taste test can be done with anyone - friends, family or strangers
• Blog about the experience on September 14, 2009

I chose Panera Bread's Broccoli-Cheese Soup. I've been looking for a recipe for a while, and this one is actually fairly simple. It took me about an hour from start to eating.

My husband, and my ex-husband (who happened to be dropping our son off) couldn't tell by sight which soup was mine and which was Panera's. They both liked mine better, and my sons (ages 12 and 7) loved it! They asked if I would make it again.

This was a really fun experiment!

My soup is on the left.